“Their focus has shifted”: King’s individual over team theory behind Sydney slump

David King thinks that the Sydney Swans have started prioritising individual achievements over team success which is coming back to haunt them.

While they’re still two points clear on top of the ladder, Sydney has lost five of their last six and the worst result of that slump came on Saturday night as they went down to Port Adelaide 148-36 in an embarrassing performance.

King thinks that the Swans had an ‘us versus the world’ mentality during their 13-1 start to the season, but that it completely flipped once players were in line for individual honours such as the Brownlow and All-Australian given the hot form they were once in.

“They had this ethos of ‘It's us versus the world’, and they were at you,” King said on SEN Mornings.

“Remember the start of the year, Joel Amartey would out-mark someone and they’d come from everywhere to chip the guy that Amartey had out-marked, they were mocking and laughing (at their opponents).

“Well, you know what? It's gone 180 degrees and now the pressure is on them.

“I think their focus has shifted. I think they started thinking about, ‘Am I a Brownlow contender? Can I win the Brownlow? Can I be All-Australian? Can I get recognition in a contract sense?’.

“100 per cent I think they have. I think they’ve been distracted by personal gains rather than what the team has been doing.

“How else do you explain it? How else do you explain this drop-off?”

While the Swans are falling in a heap, we’ve seen this before with other teams that have been so far out in front to start a season before getting complacent with there no longer being a lure of finishing top of the table.

Former Cats forward Cameron Mooney said that often happened with the great Geelong sides two thirds of the way through a season.

King can understand why a team like that would begin losing interest during regular season footy, but he doesn’t think that explains Sydney’s predicament given they haven’t won a flag since 2012.

“They (Geelong’s golden era) had already had success,” King said.

“Is that what Chad Warner is thinking? How many premiership tattoos has he got?

“I understand teams that have had success can be difficult to coach and may be difficult to motivate.

“But this to me, they've lost that investment, that absolute laser-like focus on what the team needs over and above what they need.”

Sydney will be desperate to bounce back when they face Collingwood in a huge clash at the SCG on Friday night.